Just as I stepped forward, something blocked me. It was dense, paralyzing, and invisible. I wasn’t the only one that felt it. Draven and Brady were frozen in place, too. Wide-eyed, I went to speak - but before I could I saw an image appear in the living room.
Chapter Fifteen
A ball of fire that turned purple had escorted the image into the quaint living room. It was a girl, a beautiful girl. Her hair was long, blonde, yet held a tint of lavender. Her eyes were crystal blue and looked as if the ocean itself were swimming in the raging emotions I saw in her. I couldn’t explain her style. It was modern, yet aged. Her black pants were tight and had several pockets and loops here and there. Her top looked like a corset, and the deep purple enhanced the lavender tone in her blonde hair. A necklace that reached to her stomach carried the large symbol of a pentagram. It shone as a purple flame evaporated across it.
A violin was in her left hand and a bow in her right. Her eyes locked with Draven’s and as they did I could swear I saw an ache there. Swiftly, her stare met mine as she aimed her bow at my father’s guitar. A purple flame encased it, causing it to explode in slow motion. Within the slow-moving debris, a cream colored sheet of paper floated to the ceiling. She pulled her bow back to her, and when she did, the guitar was whole again and the fire was out. After one more gaze at Draven, she vanished, taking with her the weight that was paralyzing us in place.
“What. Just. Happened?” I uttered as I replayed it over and over in my mind. The entire episode lasted only five seconds at best.
Draven stepped forward and caught the paper that was floating to the floor. The unexpected aroma of sage in the room was telling me that I was not crazy - that it did just happen.
“What does it say?” Brady asked Draven in a faint tone.
“Wait - don’t read it...is it safe? Was she good or bad?” I argued, not trusting anyone or anything, especially something as wicked as that. Where the hell was Cashton when I needed him?
“This house is sealed with herbs,” Brady clarified. “They were put here to protect you before I brought you here. A mile in each direction was also sealed off. That girl was far from evil.”
“You’re trusting herbs to tell you that?” I argued.
“I’m trusting the fact that she was wearing a pentagram. That alone stands for protection against evil. And the sage – do you smell it? That wards off evil,” Brady said to me as he walked to Draven’s side.
I nodded, agreeing with him. Now that my heart was beating at a calmer level, I was almost sure I’d read something like that when Madison and I were trying to seal off the school so we could help the shadows before they vanished into the town, just in case something really evil followed us out of The Realm. We were nothing if not cautious.
“Then what was she?”
“Best guess: a shadowed soul,” Brady replied dryly.
“What?” Draven and I both said at once.
“They’re not ghosts, and they’re not dark. They just died before their time. They know who they are and at what moment they can step back into life. Where Felicity was raised, they are basically worshipped, seen as guardians. They feel that they move you forward to open a door for them so they can protect you from falling into the same fate that they had. Others have different beliefs, ones that say they are lurking to take over your life. I’ve never seen truth to the negative side of it. I have for the positive, though.”
“You’ve seen dead people come back to life?” I questioned as I searched his thoughts, not finding that to be true.
“No, but I have seen babies that have been born exactly 40 weeks, 8 days, 16 hours, 32 minutes, and eight seconds after sighting one. That was when Allie was born. The time was exact from when Felicity awoke from a dream of seeing one.”
“Your daughter,” I said breathlessly.
He swallowed nervously. “Every number leads back to eight, except for the minutes. Thirty-two – three plus two – adds to five, which means change.”
“What does eight mean?” Draven asked.
“Perfection, infinity, the total universe, new life, resurrection, prosperity, love, the sun – the list is endless. Felicity and I have studied everything we know, trying to understand our baby, why us, why her - and we are no closer today than we were that night of her dream. It took Allie’s birth for me to believe that the dream was more than it was. I still don’t know what to think about it.”
Draven and I both glanced nervously at each other, wondering what had caused this visit from that shadowed soul.
“What’s on the paper?” Brady asked again. I could feel the fear coming off him. It was stabbing what energy I did have left like knives.
“Wait. No. Felicity had a dream - then had a baby? We just saw her wide awake. What does that mean?!” I asked in a rushed panic.
“Whatever is on that paper, I’m assuming,” Brady answered emphatically. “When you see them, they basically tell you exactly what must happen for their door to open. Felicity was handed a baby girl, you were handed a note. Hence why I am very eager to see what is on it.”
“So I do what’s on that paper, and that girl comes to life?” Draven asked.
“I don’t know. Listen, everyone is trying to figure out how to move forward because if we move forward, the children are safe, Monroe is safe. Shadowed souls move you forward; they knock you into the door you must open. They represent life, new beginnings, and fate. That girl could just be one of the millions of answered pleas this family and dimension have sent to the universe. All we want is peace for everyone.”
Draven glanced to the paper, then to me. “It’s one of her father’s songs – well, part of it. It looks like the scrap paper he was using to write it out.”
“Which one?”
“Rex Mortis.”
“The king of death?” Brady asked in a hollow tone.
“I guess it does mean that, but the song is more instrumental than lyrical. Most people thought it was about a guy named Rex,” I explained, reaching for the paper. I read my father’s handwriting aloud. “Bereavement for Rex Mortis will come when the divided are one; fire will burn, angels will fall.” The song went on to repeat those words at different times and places among a heavy drum and rhythm guitar.
“Xavier has been called the king of death for as long as I can remember,” Brady stated, as he turned white.
“What?!”
“Old stories say that when you were sent to execution, he was the one that did so, and you had a choice to die in agony or with a touch. Most chose the touch because it looked painless, but the real pain came after death - eternally damned, or so the story goes. It is an old wives’ tale that has been spoken in whispers since before my grandfather’s time in Esterious.”
“The divided are one,” Draven repeated.
I snatched the paper from him. “Yep, that’s what it says. We are all one and cannot divide,” I said sharply. “Let’s go.”
Brady’s eyes shifted between us before he turned to lead us to the passage. I kept pace with him, avoiding Draven’s eyes, the look that would tell me that he was going to do something stupid just because of a song my father had written decades ago. My silence alone told him that I wasn’t even going to consider it.
Inside the string, people were passing to and from the passage of Chara and the gray ones in the distance that led in the direction of Esterious. Briskly I walked ahead of both Draven and Brady. My heart was hammering with a pulsating anger. I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t think I had ever been this mad - this hopelessly furious in my entire life.
I grunted when I thought of Cashton, how he said I needed to join energy with Draven so I could have some of his anger. Anger sucked. I hated feeling this way. I hated feeling this way toward Draven.
As the passing people thinned out, disappeared into the glow, I felt Draven grip my arm, stopping me in my place.
“What?!” I asked, turning to glare at him.
“What?” he asked as a pain masked his eyes. “You’re furious, and I have no idea why. How can you go from one emotion to another so fast?”
“How can I? Are you serious?!” I glanced at Brady, who was lingering a few steps in front of us, and decided I didn’t care if he heard us fight this out. “What was last night? A goodbye? What were you doing – just wanting one final moment alone with me before you made the stupidest mistake of your life?!”
“What mistake?!” he yelled back. “I haven’t done anything!”
“Yet!” I said as my eyes blazed with anger. “This is beyond ridiculous. We’re just kids - kids that for some Godforsaken reason can hear whispers, see shadows. The weight of the world does not rest on our shoulders.”
“Right now it does, Charlie - you know that.”
“Guys, we need to move,” Brady said, trying to step between us.
I pushed him back. “Back off,” I snapped, then returned my glare to Draven, feeling the energy in the string turning viciously cold with our anger. “He’s your brother. I don’t care what a song says, what a scroll, book, wood block says, he is your brother, and there is no way - no way in hell - that we can claim a victory if anyone is lost in this. Period.”
“Exactly! We’re losing, Charlie!” he bellowed. “Forget the damned – what about Grayson and Winston? Monroe? Silas?” He gripped my shoulders. “I will not let you lose your innocence. If Aden and I can team up and take out this master, then this all stops – all of it.” His jaw flexed before he went on. “We have to read the signs before us. Some shadowed soul appeared and is telling us we have to do this with your
own
father’s words. I know you. If this were your choice you would take it. You would take it to save a stranger. I’m taking it to save people we care about. I’m taking it to save you - and apparently that was the plan in Pompeii, and it went wrong. Next time, it
will
go right.”
All I could do was glare.
“We need to move!” Brady said again.
“Not now!” Draven yelled in his direction.
An ache that no soul should feel engulfed me as angry tears encased my eyes. “Every part of me is telling me this is wrong, Draven. You’re an individual. So is Aden. Why would fate have you join to bring down one evil man?! This can’t happen. Tell me that you love and trust me enough to believe that I’m not arguing about this for the sole fear of losing you. I’m arguing because it’s wrong. It would not be that easy to take out what Cashton outlined for us. This is not strategy - this is suicide.”
Draven gasped as his eyes rushed over me, over the thin air around me.
“Okay,” he said as he pulled me to him. It wasn’t the promise I wanted, but it calmed me down.
Before I could reach my arms around him or take a breath, Brady yelled, “Get down!”
We didn’t have a chance to listen to him. What felt like a wave of energy charged through the string and knocked us into the walls. I cringed, knowing that if there was not a passage there, we would burn in place.
The white wall fell past us without a single hint of pain. We were knocked to the rocky ground. Draven was on his feet before I could blink, pulling me up. Taking in our surroundings, I couldn’t fathom where we were. It looked like the peak of a volcano. Steaming fog was lingering in the air that seemed too thin to breathe - but that wasn’t what was terrifying. It was the fact that we were alone. Brady didn’t fall through the wall like we did.
“How stupid can you be?” I heard Bianca say and turned to see her walking slowly through the fog toward us.
Draven stepped in front of me, but I dodged out of his way. I needed a target at which to throw all my frustrations - and she was the perfect one.
“Oh yeah, I forgot - I was
supposed t
o kill you. No, wait - you’re just going to vanish like a coward, or better yet take over an image of someone else. You cold-hearted wench,” I seethed.
Bianca crossed her arms and raised one eyebrow. “Take your best shot.”
With a nod, I knocked her to the ground, but she was on her feet before I could even find pleasure in that act.
“Feel better?” she asked without any emotion or expression in her voice.
“You’re still breathing, aren’t you?”
“Don’t worry, Charlie - you’re going to get your wish soon enough. But I doubt it will be very joyful for you, considering you and all your little friends are going to go down with me.”
“Did you do this? Are we here because of you?!” Draven yelled.
“Maybe. What are you going to do about it?” she said, winking at him.
“You think I’m worried about this? That I can’t see my way to someone who could find us here?” he threw back at her.
“Yeah, maybe. Go ahead. Leave. Me and Charlie have a few things to clear up.”
“I told you to stay away from her,” he said with a clenched jaw.
“Yeah, well, maybe I was distracted by all the things you were saying with your eyes, daring to say with your hands.”
This time, I didn’t knock her down Draven did. I wanted to smile so badly, but I was just too focused on every word, every move she was making.
Instantly, she was on her feet. “Fine, Draven. Please stay. The Cavalry is on their way anyway.”